


Breathless

by Shoarita



Series: Sakuraiba Series [1]
Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Aimiya Frienship, Arashi AU, Doctor Sho, M/M, Musician Aiba, Nino steals the fic for himself because he's nino, Pneumothorax episode, Sakuraiba attraction, real life illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 12:09:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6704005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shoarita/pseuds/Shoarita
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aiba is preparing for his first big performance as an Saxophone soloist when something unexpected happens landing him in the hospital where he meets Dr. Sho Sakurai. (I'm horrible at summaries T_T give it a chance?)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breathless

**Author's Note:**

> My first work posted on AO3...AAAHHHH! I do not own the boys sadly. I saw a text post on Tumblr where a girl was kind of giving a play by play of what was happening to her on the hospital and got inspired by it being able to only imagine Aiba and Sho playing the roles. The Tumblr user is ohsebs.

It all started when Aiba Masaki went to his music rehearsals. The director had asked the group of soloists to select a piece of music of their liking and practice it so they could perform it at a small outside concert that was held every year at a park in Tokyo. Aiba was excited to be able to perform for the first time as a soloist on the annual concert, but was also extremely worried that he may screw up the song. Today’s were the last rehearsals before the presentation, so the music director was taking his time with each member of the group, fine tuning and perfecting each piece. While the director busied himself with an Oboe player, the rest of the group found places around the big rehearsal room and outside to start tuning their instruments and go through the warm up exercises by themselves. 

Aiba took his saxophone, pulled a chair and a sheet music holder to one of the corners of the big space, set everything up and started his exercises. After his second run of the four-note arpeggio warm-up, he started to notice that his chest was hurting a bit, as if something was pressing down on it. He brushed it off knowing that it was just the nerves playing a game on him. He took a deep breath with some slight difficulty and started his warm-ups again. Almost two hours later, the assistant of the music director stood in front of Aiba without him noticing, since he had closed his eyes and was trying to regain some control over his emotions.

“Aiba-kun, are you ok?” asked the assistant looking intently at the young man’s face with a worried look on his own. Aiba opened his eyes surprised to see his assistant’s director standing in front of him, bent at the waist so the older man’s face was right in front of his. 

“Ah, Koichi-san, I didn’t hear you come over.” He quickly sat up straighter on the chair, fixing the instrument on his lap which was almost dangling off his knees. Aiba had been scolded multiple times by the musical director and his assistant for these reasons. “I’m ok; I was just trying to calm myself down. I’m pretty nervous about the concert.”

“Aiba-kun, there is nothing to worry about. You’ll do great.” Koichi said flashing the other a warming smile, putting a hand on his shoulder. “It’ll be just like when you go play for the elderly at the Homes.” Aiba looked at the man and tried to smile too. 

“At the nursing homes I always end up playing the same songs, simple ones, they are pretty content with just the sound”

“Again, you’ll do great, although I heard you run through it, you’re cutting some notes short and not giving enough power to where it needs to go.” The man pulled up a chair and sat down beside Aiba prompting him to raise his instrument and start playing his piece. “See? There. It’s asking for a semibreve and you are reducing it to a minim.” Koichi said pointing at the exact note on Aiba’s musical sheet.

“I know, I’m trying to do it but I can’t seem to muster enough air to actually hold the notes.” Aiba responded grabbing his shirt at the chest and tugging a bit frustrated.

“Are you ok?” inquired the older man again. 

“Just a bit short of breath, a bit dizzy too but it’s just the excitement of it all.” Even though he suspected Aiba was playing down what was really bothering him, Koichi gave a sigh.

“Come on, the director must have finished with Nino-chan already.” Both stood up, Aiba grabbed the things he needed and followed the other man to the adjoining room where the director was standing beside a young man playing the grand piano. Koichi and Aiba closed the door behind them and stayed in front of it, waiting for the young man to finish his piece. 

“Good, Ninomiya-kun, that’ll do.” The director said patting the young man’s back, stepping to the side so he could stand up from the bench. 

“Thank you Yoshi-san” Ninomiya beamed at his director who looked at him with evil eyes for the use of the nickname. Then he noticed the men standing at the door.

“Aiba-kun, Koichi tells me you have been having problems with some parts.” Aiba immediately looked to the man at his left wondering when he had the time to do that. “Last time you didn’t seem to have any trouble, what happened?”

“Can I stay? I don’t want to go home alone and I already finished the new game, so I have nothing better to do” Ninomiya asked looking more at director than at Aiba. Both of them nodded and Nino sat down again on the bench.

“I can’t muster up enough air to hold the notes anymore.” Aiba explained while sitting and putting his sheet music on the holder. The director stood beside the musician so he could be able to read the sheet music too. “I don’t think I made the right choice with this piece, Tsuyoshi-sensei.”

“Nonsense, do you think I would have let you play it if I didn’t know that you could do it?” Just like Koichi had done, the director indicated Aiba to start playing, not really expecting an answer. As he complied, Aiba noticed that the chest pain had gone up a few levels rendering him to a breathless coughing fit. 

“I’m sorry” Aiba said as soon as he controlled his breathing again.

“What’s happening?” Koichi asked looking at Nino for some clue.

“My mother used to do this to me when I was little.” Tsuyoshi said while bending down to press his ear on Aiba’s back. “It allowed her to hear if I was having an asthma attack.” All he could hear was the shallowed quick breaths of the young man so he sneaked a hand up to his chest to press him back. This instantly made Aiba hiss and wince with pain, the air completely leaving his lungs. “Call an ambulance.” The director ordered looking at Koichi who quickly went out of the room to make the call.

“Aiba-chan, look at me” Nino had come over his best friends side and was squatting down in front of him. Aiba complied but his vision was blurry so he didn’t exactly look at Nino in the eyes. Koichi came back with a cell phone in his hands.  
“They’re going to be here in two minutes.”

“Aiba-chan, do you feel like you could walk, maybe if you get some fresh air it’ll help you.” Nino asked him to which Aiba just nodded. With the help of his friend, Aiba was able to stand up and walk outside to a bench in the little garden. Like Koichi had said, the ambulance arrived on time and the paramedics quickly started their assessment of the situation. Soon Aiba was sat down on the stretcher and carried to the back of the ambulance. 

“Who will accompany him” Asked one of the paramedics looking between the other three men.

“I will” Nino responded quickly looking at his director and his assistant. Both nodded knowing it was the best choice.

“Please let us know what happens ok?” 

“Sure, Yoshi-san” Nino smiled and stepped into the ambulance beside his best friend before the paramedic closed the doors and the ambulance sped off.

“One day Tsuyoshi-sensei will cut out your tongue for using that nickname.” Aiba said with very hard labored breaths.

“He secretly loves it. Now stop talking and concentrate on not dying and leaving your best friend alone.” Taking a few puffs of air, Aiba’s eyes rolled back and he fainted. “Baka! Wake up!”

The EMTs worked quickly to put on an oxygen mask on the man and bringing him back to consciousness, but luckily the hospital was really close so they were there in less than 10 minutes with a still unconscious Aiba. The ambulance parked and Aiba was rushed into the Emergency Room lobby followed closed by Nino. As they were coming in, a doctor instantly took one of the wrists of the man on the stretcher to measure his pulse while asking for his vitals and what had happened to the paramedics. Everyone kept walking fast to one of the big exam rooms in the Emergency wing. 

“Aiba-san, can you hear me?” The doctor asked while raising the man’s eyelids and moving a little flashlight close in front of them. Two nurses had come in to help transfer Aiba on to hospital equipment so the EMTs could go. The doctor was looking to see if the unconscious man would react and he did. Slowly, his eyes started to follow the light, thus waking up in the process.

“Aiba-san, my name is Sakurai Sho, you’re at Keio University Hospital, and I’m your doctor for the time being.” He explained when the man seemed to have woken up but looked really confused. Aiba only nodded. “I was told you are experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath” Again he nodded. “Has this ever happened before?” 

“No, he plays the Saxophone and he has always had a really extraordinary lung capacity.” Nino replied for his best friend. He was standing a few steps back allowing the doctor and the nurses do their job. The doctor nodded with a ghost of a smile in thanks and pointed to something in the chart the nurse beside him was writing on. 

“In a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest, where would you rate your pain level right now?”

“About an 8 maybe” Aiba said lifting up the oxygen mask. 

“Keep the mask on please” instructed one of the nurses gently pushing the mask back in place. 

“Could you sit up for a little bit?” Asked the doctor with a small frown taking his stethoscope off his neck, putting the earpieces on to listen in on Aiba’s chest as the man arranged himself with the help of Nino and one of the nurses. Sakurai pressed the device to the man’s back and listened intently. “I’m going to take mask for a second ok?” he asked but didn’t wait for a response, as he took the mask off and went back to listening through his stethoscope, he frowned and closed his eyes to concentrate. 

After a few seconds, Sakurai opened his eyes and what he found right in front of them was the young man’s nape, which for a split second he thought looked very sexy with the brown slightly long hair falling so smoothly on it. Sakurai back shot straight up, surprised by his own thoughts.

“What is it Sakurai-sensei?” Nino asked really worried by the look on the doctor’s face.

“Uhm,” His brain was working a mile an hour to conjure up what to say to not worry the others. “I’m going to order an X-ray of the patient’s chest capacity.” He said directly to the nurse beside him, and then turned to look at Aiba who was lying back down already. “In the time being, the nurse will give you some medicine to help the muscles in your chest decompress and relax so the pain can go down, although I expect it to not go away completely.” The doctor finished blushing ever so slightly over his momentarily lack of professionalism.

“Sensei?” Nino let the question hang not missing the sudden shiftiness of the doctor and the blush present on his chubby cheeks.

“He’ll be alright, I ordered the X-rays to make sure what I suspect is correct and that way decide on the best course of action”  
The doctor said regaining his composure and flashing the other two a reassuring smile. “I have to go now attend to other patients but as soon as the results come back, I’ll be here to let you know.” Nino nodded in appreciation. “Excuse me” The doctor bowed and stepped out of the room with one of the nurses who closed the door after them. The one who had told Aiba to keep the mask on stayed behind to hook up the IV drip on him with the medicine for the pain on it. After she finished, she bowed and excused herself out of the room, not before showing a smile when she and Nino caught each other’s sight. Nino whistled. 

“That doctor sure is hot.” He said pulling a chair close to the bed Aiba was transferred to. Aiba chuckled but immediately stopped a hand clasping his chest in pain.

“Don’t make me laugh asshole.” He said when he could breathe again.

“Sorry” Nino said apologetically but still smirked because Aiba had thought it also. “He slipped”

“What do you mean?” Aiba asked felling how slowly but surely the pressing on his chest was diminishing. He was surprised how fast the IV worked, only a minute or two had passed. 

“He blushed when he was listening to your heart. I think he likes you” he smirked while saying it.

“Don’t be foolish Nino” 

~~0~~0~~0~~0~~

Sometime later when Aiba had been taken to get the X-rays done, Sho came back to the room holding the results in his hands. He went to the light-up board on the far wall and put up the X-rays turning the light on. Then he turned around to face the two young men waiting expectantly for him to talk.

“It’s just as I thought, you have Pneumothorax or better known as a collapsed lung.” He said looking directly at Aiba. Both Nino and Aiba looked at each other worried.

“Are you going to have to take out my lungs? How am I going to breathe?” 

“No” Sho said smiling. “Your lungs are going to stay exactly where they are” Aiba let go of the breath he didn’t know he was holding and Sho chuckled a bit. “You see here?” Sho pointed at the x-ray where Aiba and Nino figured where the top of the lungs. “This area here is not supposed to have any air because it’s what protects the actual lungs where air is kept. You guys can see there is difference between the left lung and the right.” Both men nodded looking closely at the x-ray. “The left is smaller because air has entered into the space where it’s not supposed to be. You are experiencing breathing problems because the lungs are the only organ equipped to store air, if it finds its way out it’ll became useless for only the lungs can process it.” 

“So what needs to be done?” Nino said not liking what he was hearing.

“I’m going to use this syringe.” Sho said taking out a relatively big syringe out of his doctor’s coat. “With this I will be able to extract the air, letting the lungs retake its space.” As if on cue, the nurse from before was back to help the doctor with the procedure. Aiba looked reasonably worried. “It requires local anesthesia, but there is nothing to worry about, the procedure is quite simple.” After a while of explaining the risk of the local anesthetic, Aiba finally nodded and signed the papers consenting to the treatment. Aiba was moved to one of the private rooms of the hospital since he would have to stay the night. Nino was asked to stay outside the room while the doctor and two new nurses worked on Aiba. He really didn’t think he could watch as the room wall was made out of glass, so he moved to the waiting area. After what seemed like hours, the doctor came out of the room to find Nino.

“Everything went perfect.” Sakurai smiled at the smaller man.

“Thank you so much Sensei” Nino actually smiled back.

“My pleasure, he will be a bit out of it for a while from the anesthesia and the pain medication, so don’t worry. I’ll be back shortly to check up on him” Again, Sho bowed and excused himself. Nino bowed back then went to the room to check on his best friend.

“How are you feeling?”

“Great, the pressures is gone and see?” Aiba said pointing to a very tiny hole on his bare chest where Nino guessed the needle was inserted could be seen. “That’s where they stuck the needle in.”

“I can see” the younger man responded while smiling at the far off tone Aiba was using.

“They said I may be a bit trippy for a while but I don’t feel any different.” Aiba said then frowned while looking up. “Are there hairs on the sealing?” 

“Those would be your eyebrows Aibaka” Nino couldn’t help but smile at the dopey expression his best friend had on his face.

“I’m cold” Aiba said while pulling his hospital robes onto place again and tugging at the blanket that was provided by the hospital. The cold had always got to Aiba fast so he always needed more than one blanket. 

“Wait for a bit ok, I’m going to see if they can bring you another blanket while I go home and pick up some things for us to spend the night.” When Aiba nodded, Nino stepped out of the room and went directly to the nurse’s station on that floor. 

“And bring Makoto-chan!” Nino heard just as he was about to talk to the nurse sitting on the other side of the counter, she was the one who had stayed behind hooking Aiba up to the IV. He rolled his eyes, really, why would a grown man still use a plushy to sleep; only Aiba.

“Sorry about that” Nino said pointing back towards the room where the yelling man still lay. “Would it be ok it I left to grab some things for us since we are spending the night?” 

“Sure, Sakurai-sensei said there were no complications so it’s alright for you to go. The doctor will be back in a few to check up on him.” The nurse said sweetly with a smile.

“And tell me, does Sakurai-sense often visit his patients so much?” Nino said while leaning over the counter to be face to face with the cute nurse. She instantly froze and blushed, Nino smirked.

“Um, he does pay attention to all his patients, Sensei cares a lot about bringing a good treatment to all.” She tried as much as she could to not look at the devilish eyes right in front of her.

“But?” Nino drilled in cocking his head to the side and raising his eyebrows in a sexy manner.

“Sakurai-sensei does seem to pay close attention to Aiba-san.” She made the mistake of looking at him in the eyes, and she got lost in the honey ember pools. 

“What team does Sakurai-sensei play for? Red or blue team?” Nino absentmindedly brushed off a strand of hair that was falling on the nurse’s face, following his own actions with his eyes, and then meeting her gaze again. The nurse visibly gulped as her breath quickened, her blush reaching her ears.

“Hm?” She was confused by the question since her only concern right now was how the man was so delicately licking his lips.

“You know what I mean.” 

“Blue” She started to feel a bit dizzy, her heart pounding a mile a minute. Nino stepped back with a wide smirk on his face; the nurse blinked rapidly thinking about what had happened. “Oh also, could you bring him another blanket?” Nino asked while pointing to the room. The nurse nodded. “Thank you so much.” Nino flashed a smile and saluted her with two fingers before walking away, leaving her frowning and confused. 

30 minutes after Nino left, Sho went back to check up on Aiba and was surprised when he looked inside the room. It looked like the man had tried to build a fort with pillows and blankets; it looked like it would collapse at any second. Smiling, he stepped inside the room.

“Aiba-san?” 

“Sakurai-sensei fight me!” Said the sick man in what he believed to be a menacing voice. Sho smiled then pulled the blanket away from Aiba.

“Maybe later” He checked the pouting man’s vitals and his drip before stepping out of the room. When he came back with a new bag for the IV drip, the man had the blanket over his head again. He looked like he was going to offer Sho to fight again but started coughing instead. After a few seconds the man started breathing correctly again.

“I won’t fight you” Sho said while taking the two pillows and the blankets that where the ‘fort’ and laying Aiba back down. “I know you’d win.” He smiled at the other man; then changed the bag for the IV. “I see your boyfriend left.” 

“Nino? Nino’s not my boyfriend. He’s my best friend, he’ll be back soon.” 

“Oh” Sho raised his eyebrows then blushed. “So is he coming to see you? Your partner I mean.” He couldn’t believe he was saying those things. Sho could not control his tongue. 

“He doesn’t have one. A boyfriend I mean.” Sho jumped turning around. The answer had come from a smiling Nino who was standing just inside the door with a big blanket and a bag on his hands. 

“Um…excuse me” Sho practically ran out of the room red as a tomato. Nino let out a laugh when the door closed.

“He’s so much fun to tease.” He said putting the things on the chair by the bed and giving the blanket to Aiba.

“Don’t be mean Nino” Aiba told him even when he didn’t know exactly what the other was talking about. Soon Aiba fell asleep and Nino whipped out his DS to play before he too, knocked out. For the rest of the night, Sakurai did not appear again, only the nurse Nino had flirted with earlier came to check up on Aiba. The night turned into morning in what seemed to be a blink of an eye.

“Good morning” Said a slightly tired looking Sho when he came in the room carrying two cups of coffee from the gift shop. Aiba shot right up and wiped away the drool trickling down the side of his mouth. Sho gave one of the cups to Nino then sat the other down on the food tray by Aiba’s bed. “How are you feeling?” He asked while putting the earpieces of his stethoscope on his ears and getting close to Aiba. 

“So much better” Aiba replied looking at the doctor directly in the eyes and smiling. Sho could not help but to smile back.

“Good” He pressed the stethoscope on Aiba’s chest and listened for a few seconds. “Everything seems to be ship shape.” Did he really say ship shape! “You were taken off the oxygen mask earlier so after you eat your breakfast you can be discharged.” He said almost burying his face on the chart he had picked up from Aiba’s bed writing just that.

“Thank you so much Sensei” Aiba smiled brightly and bowed his head to the doctor. 

“You’re welcome… you can call me Sho” Nino widened his eyes, surprised the doctor had the balls to be so direct. Sho smiled shyly then bolted from the room as usual.

“He’s cute” Aiba said with a giggle then pulled his food tray closer and took the coffee cup to drink when he noticed something written on the bottom part of it. “It’s a phone number.” He showed the cup to Nino. “It says ‘Fight me?’” 

“Wow, who would have thought” Nino was very pleased. Aiba blushed a little and took a sip of the coffee extremely happy. In his peripheral vision, Nino noticed the nurse who he had flirted with the night before was walking away with her purse on her shoulder. Without saying anything to Aiba, he stood up and ran to the stairs, trying to get out of the hospital before the nurse without her noticing.

“Done with your shift?” The nurse jumped when she saw the devilish man leaning seductively on a beam just outside the doors of the hospital. She only nodded feeling a blush creeping up her face again. Nino walked closer to her, took her hand putting a piece of paper inside it then leaned in close so his mouth could brush her ear.

“Will you call me?” He felt the nurse nod again. He stepped away from her still holding her hand. When she looked at him, Nino winked then let go walking back into the hospital.

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language, I apologize for any horrors (yes horrors, my type writing skills are not good enough to call them errors) you might have found. I'm working on an Epilogue for this, so I'm going to be posting again in a few days maybe.  
> Also I have no knowledge of medicine, everything was just product of a quick google on the subject.  
> Kudos and comments are much appreciated. Love to read what you guys thought of it.


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